MWC: BlackBerry Unveils New Leap Smartphone

BlackBerry unveiled a new mid-market smartphone on Tuesday dubbed the BlackBerry Leap that is set to replace the Z3 device. The company also revealed that it plans to launch a new touchscreen slider device later this year. The Waterloo, Ontario-based company said the phone, unveiled at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, would hit stores in U.S and European markets around April and be priced around $275.

The new BlackBerry Leap is an all-touch smartphone with an edge-to-edge five-inch HD display (720p), a dual-core Qualcomm processor, BlackBerry?s latest operating system and more than a full day?s battery power.

Features of BlackBerry Leap that drive security, productivity, communications and collaboration include:

Security to Maintain Privacy - BlackBerry Leap is equipped with support for encryption, plus built-in malware protection and back-up, wipe and restore. A
Battery - Up to 25 hours of heavy use, powered by a 2800 mAh battery and optimization of power consumption in BlackBerry 10.
BlackBerry Keyboard - Type faster and more accurately on a touchscreen keyboard that learns how you write, backed by error correction, multi-language support, customized adaption and flow.
BlackBerry 10 OS 10.3.1 - BlackBerry Leap comes preloaded with the new BlackBerry 10.3.1 operating system, offering a fresh look that incorporates updated icons and an instant action bar. Additional features include BlackBerry Blend; BlackBerry Assistant; Dual app storefronts preloaded; BlackBerry World; and Amazon Appstore.

The company also unveiled plans to roll out two more models over the course of the next months, both with a keyboard.

One will be a high-end smartphone with what Blackberry called "a dual curve all touch display" with a keyboard behind a slide.

"We don't have a code name for it but I call it The Slide," BlackBerry Chief Executive John Chen told media in Barcelona. "It will come some time this year," he added without giving a specific date.

Earlier this week at MWC, BlackBerry announced it planned to expand its cross-platform strategy by bringing features including the BlackBerry Hub and its virtual keyboard across to devices powered by rival platforms such as Android, Windows and iOS.

Blackberry Leap specs:

Size:

Height 144 mm / 5.67 in
Width 7.8 mm / .87 in
Depth 9.5 mm / 0.37 in

Weight: 170 g / 6.0 oz

Navigation: All-touch screen, with intuitive gesture based navigation

Keyboard: On screen BlackBerry Keyboard (portrait/landscape), featuring contextual auto-correction, next-word prediction and a personalized learning engine that gets to know the way you type

Dedicated keys: Volume Up/Down, Mute, Lock (for Power On/Off)

Screen:

5" diagonal, 16:9 aspect ratio,
294 PPI
1280 x 70 resolution
24-bit color depth

Operating system: BlackBerry 10 OS

Desktop software:

BlackBerry Blend software to bring the power of your BlackBerry smartphone to your computer and tablet
BlackBerry Link software for your computer to enable synchronization of data and media

Processor: Qualcomm MSM 8960 1.5 GHz

Memory:

2 GB RAM
16 GB Flash

Expandable memory: Expandable memory via hot swappable microSD memory card (Up to 18 GB)

USB ports: Micro USB .0 high speed port - allows charging and data synchronization of the device with a USB cable

Battery: 800 mAH (minimum) non-removable Lithium Ion battery

Rear camera:

8 megapixel auto-focus camera
Flash, continuous and touch to focus
Video image stabilization
5x digital zoom
1080p HD video recording at 30 fps
DOF video stabilization

Front camera:

2 megapixel fixed-focus camera
70p HD video recording
3x digital zoom

Image formats: BMP, JPG, GIF, PNG, SGI, SVG, TSG, TIF, WBMP Audio & video formats: AAC, AMR, AWB, FLAC, M4A, MKA, MP3, OGG, WAV, WMA, 3GP, 3GP, ASF, AVI, F4V, M4V, MKV, MOV, MP4, MPEG4, WMV

Audio & video encoding/decoding: H.64, MPEG-3, H.63, AAC-LC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, WMA 9/10, VC-1, VP6, PCM, LPCM, MPEG-, FLAC, GSM, Vorbis, QCELP, MJPEG Pre-loaded apps

Multimedia: Music, Videos, Pictures, Camera, Picture Editor, Story Maker

Productivity: BlackBerry Hub (Email and Social Messaging), BlackBerry Assistant, Universal Search, Calendar, Contacts, Browser, Text Messaging, Clock, Calculator, Documents To Go, File Manager, Adobe Reader, BlackBerry Remember (memos/tasks), Box, Dropbox, Evernote

Other: Amazon Appstore, Phone, BBM(Video and Voice), BlackBerry World, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, foursquare, YouTube, Weather, Maps/Navigation, Setup, Help, Tutorials

Security: Password protection, screen lock, and sleep mode

Network bands: